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There was the daily warm-up sketch, and I decided to go out of my comfort zone to learn something new. The goal was to draw faster and more efficient. I did that by concentrating on the underlying structure of the pose. This meant drawing a stick figure first and once I got that right, add features to it to give at an appearance of an anthropomorphized pig.

This method saved me 20 minutes (if not more) right out off the bat. Normally, I try to get the looks, the final appearance, right. However, this time around I tried to put off drawing a pig-like character as long as possible. In fact, it could have been any animal. However, at some point, I began to add more volume to the upper legs, to give it more porcinus look and feel. Pigs are known for their huge hams, so there.

While I was nearing completion, I erased most of the underlying structure, because all those lines had become a bit of a mess. Next time, I should draw with a lighter touch, so I can safe time not having to erase. Once I have the correct shape, I can emphasize that and leave the other stuff for a clean-up. I could even imagine using a colored pencil to do the roughs and the final version in black lead, so I can separate on color after scanning. The light-rough-and-emphasized-final method is my preferred method, though, because it is much more intuitive for me.

So did I learn something today? Heck, yeah, tons of new ideas on how to approach sketches. Also, that one of the differences between an amateurish and a professional look is how you approach the subject. While the amateur wants to have an immediate gratification from the get-go, the pro has the discipline to suppress this urge to impress to a later stage, and work on building a scaffold first, and not to dive right in like an amateur. Amateur art can be impressive. Pro art is impressive too, but it has the added bonus of consistency and speed.

In fact, it is the consistency and speed which enables an artist to earn a living from his or her art. If it takes too long to create anything, you won’t be able to produce enough work to pay your bills. I’m not yet proficient enough to take the plunge of asking money for my artwork, but I’m surely getter nearer to that point each time I try to do better than previous time, preferably in the same time or less.